Does Chocolate Consumption Really Boost Nobel Award Chances? The Peril of Over-Interpreting Correlations in Health Studies
Does Chocolate Consumption Really Boost Nobel Award Chances? The Peril of Over-Interpreting Correlations in Health Studies
复制标题
DOI：
10.3945/jn.113.174813
复制
发表时间：
2013-06-01
影响因子：
4.2
通讯作者：
Pesenti, Mauro
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Maurage, Pierre;Heeren, Alexandre;Pesenti, Mauro
巧克力消费和诺贝尔奖获得者数量之间的相关性最近导致了一种建议，即消费更多的巧克力将增加获奖者的数量，因为可可黄烷醇对认知功能的有益影响。我们证明，这种解释是反驳时，其他黄烷醇丰富的营养素消费被认为是。我们还通过报告诺贝尔奖获得者的数量与各种其他指标之间的高度相关性（无论是否相关），表明过度解释营养和健康研究中的相关性的危险。最后，我们讨论的统计替代品，可能克服相关性的缺点。
A correlation observed between chocolate consumption and the number of Nobel laureates has recently led to the suggestion that consuming more chocolate would increase the number of laureates due to the beneficial effects of cocoa-flavanols on cognitive functioning. We demonstrate that this interpretation is disproved when other flavanol-rich nutriment consumption is considered. We also show the peril of over-interpreting correlations in nutrition and health research by reporting high correlations between the number of Nobel laureates and various other measures, whether cogently related or not. We end by discussing statistical alternatives that may overcome correlation shortcomings.